Campaign Update

Reflecting much of the media comment, since offshore wind costs as low as £57.50/MWh were announced earlier this month, (1) The Guardian’s editorial said the precipitous drop in the price of electricity from offshore wind turbines should “blow away” the UK’s nuclear plans. It describes Hinkley Point C as “like a dinosaur even before it arrives on earth”. Ministers should “open the door to a greener, cleaner future where Britain meets greenhouse gas targets without more expensive nuclear plants.” (2)

Comment

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) now expects renewable power deployment to be significantly higher than previously thought after 2020, primarily due to the plummeting cost and surging popularity of solar power and storage technologies. BEIS’ projections now expect cumulative new build renewables capacity from 2016 to 2035 to reach 45GW, marking a sharp increase in the 2015 projection for 33GW of new capacity. The energy supply gap expected from Hinkley Point C (HPC) delays is already …

Daily News Roundup

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mud from the site of a disused nuclear power station is to be dumped off Cardiff’s coast when the UK’s newest nuclear power station is built. EDF Energy, which is building the Hinkley Point C reactor in north Somerset, has a marine licence to dump up to 200,000 cubic metres of dredged material close to Cardiff Bay. One expert has raised concerns about the proposed dumping, saying he fears that the mud may have …